Celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2006,
the Nicholson Pipes and Drums of Westminster, California are Orange
County's own Scottish bagpipe band. They have earned a reputation
for excellence -- in both performance and demeanor -- at Scottish
festivals and special events from California to the British Isles.

With the resurgence in popularity of Celtic
music -- and bagpipes and drums in particular -- the Nicholson band is
kept busy performing at gala celebrations, conventions, weddings,
birthdays, memorial services and holiday festivities. The band has earned
numerous competition awards, including first-place trophies at the Costa
Mesa, San Diego, Loch Prado and Pleasanton Highland Games, and competed in
its first World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland in August
2006.

The group has also recorded a hit CD,
“Nicholson Pipes and Drums,” which is one of the top-selling bagpipe recordings
in California. The band’s most recent recording, “By
Request,” features our good friend Eric Rigler, the piper from the
Braveheart and Titanic movie soundtracks. It also includes
many of the tunes most requested by the Nicholsons’ live audiences.

The Nicholson Pipes and Drums are the official
pipe band of the Clan Nicholson (MacNicol), and have visited the clan’s
homeland on Scotland’s Isle of Skye at the invitation of the Clan Chief.
Representing Clan Nicholson, the band performed and competed at the Stone
Mountain Games near Atlanta, Georgia in 1998.

The band was also
honored to accompany Westminster city officials to Ft. Worth, Texas in
1996, where its enthusiastic support helped Westminster be selected an
“All-America City” by the National Civic League.

Band members have
performed for former President Ronald Reagan at inauguration festivities
in Orange County, and regularly participate in the nation’s largest Fourth
of July parade in Huntington Beach. The band has also performed at the
Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, an LPGA tournament at
the Riviera Country Club, and served as greeters upon the arrival in Los
Angeles of the Royal Princess cruise ship, on her maiden voyage.

The band performed at the
Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984, and represented the United States at
the World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1986. They have
also appeared on a nationally televised game show, a special MTV
presentation with actor/comedian Mike Myers, performed for the Grand
Re-Opening of the Queen Mary in Long Beach, and entertained for media
mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose guests included Ronald Reagan and Disney
chairman Michael Eisner.

The Nicholson Pipes and
Drums were founded by Kathleen Nicholson Graham in 1981. The band was
named after her father, Pipe Major Malcolm Nicholson, C.M., who directed
many award-winning pipe bands in Vancouver, B.C. Initially, the band was
composed of Kathleen’s bagpipe students.

This ever-popular,
versatile bagpipe band custom-tailors each performance. Lessons are also
available. The Nicholson Pipes and Drums are a 501(c)3 non-profit
organization, and all donations to the band are tax-deductible. To
contact the band, call (562) 696-1298 or (714) 895-4127 or email:
nicholsonpipes@yahoo.com.
Pipe Major Hackney may be reached at
arhackney@earthlink.net

All content
(c) 2004 by the Nicholson Pipes and Drums. Website last updated on
January 16, 2004. For information about or inquiries regarding this
site, please contact the Webmaster.